Brigadier-General Thomas Kilby Smith to Eliza Walter Smith, March 23, 1865

Headquarters District Of South Alabama,

Fort Gaines, Ala., March 23, 1865.

My Dear Mother:

A glance at the map will show you the locality of “Dauphine Island” and Fort Gaines, my headquarters for the present. It is just beyond Grant's Pass, at the entrance of Mobile Bay, about twenty-eight miles from the city of Mobile, and about one hundred and eighty miles from New Orleans. The island is not many miles in circumference, and, save on one side, the view from it is only bounded by the horizon, it has little vegetation but pine trees, and the surface is covered with fine, white perfectly clean sand, almost as free from impurities as snow. The beaches are fine, and the music of the surf is always in my ear. Oysters and fish of the finest varieties abound and I have every facility for taking them. I have never seen oysters so fat or of so delicate flavor, and I am told that they are good and wholesome every month in the year. I am fortunate in having secured a most excellent cook, whose specialty seems to be the preparation of oysters, and really I have eaten no other food except bread since I have been here. During present operations, and until I move to headquarters, I shall be in daily communication with New Orleans, newspapers from whence reach me within twenty-four hours of publication. The air here is most delicious, and is said to be highly salubrious. From time immemorial the citizens of New Orleans and Southern Louisiana have resorted here for the benefit of health, and these islands, and the coast near by have been ever free from the ravages of yellow fever. I look southward over the open sea towards Havana, and it is from the West Indies that the pleasant south wind comes. My health improves, my bowels have not troubled me for a good while, and under God I am blessed with the most favorable opportunity possible to recuperate my well-nigh exhausted energies.

My anxiety will be great until I hear of the return in safety of my dear wife. I left her in what to her was an embarrassing situation, and I am proud to say she governed herself like a true heroine, and though left entirely alone in a strange hotel, in a strange city, and among entire strangers, she bore herself at my sudden departure like a true soldier's wife, without a whimper. I left Walter on the street without a good-bye. I pray to God they have got home safe.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 380-1

From Washington

WASHINGTON, May 20.

Gen. Saxton arrived at Fort Monroe this morning, and goes to New York, this evening.  Most of the passengers will be in New York on Friday.

Voluminous dispatches were received from the Gulf today.  They related principally to the details of the recent movements connected with the capture of New Orleans.  The vessels of the fleet have been judiciously distributed, under Com. Lee, going up as far as Vicksburg, for purposes which it would be improper to state.  It appears from the documents that Commodore Farragut carried out his instructions to the letter and was ably and cheerfully sustained by all under his command.

On our forces occupying Pensacola, the Mayor promised that the citizens would behave themselves peacefully.  The rebels had evacuated the place on hearing that our steamers, the day before, were going to run into Mobile Bay, and that the squadron and mortar boats would soon follow.

Commander Porter left Ship Island on the 7th, with the steamer belonging to the mortar fleet, and the Rachel, for Mobile bar, for the purpose of fixing a place for the mortar boats to lie and plant buoys for the ships to run in by when they should arrive.

Great excitement is said to exist within the forts at the progress of the fleet. – There was reason to believe that Fort Gaines was evacuated, and that the troops there were leaving to reinforce Fort Morgan.

Special to Herald.

All here are filled with expectations of a great battle at Corinth and Battour’s Bridge before the week ends.  It is expected that these two battles will practically conclude the campaign, and leave nothing else to be done but to put down the guerilla fighting.

The recent proclamation of the President begins to give great satisfaction to all classes.  The conservatives are satisfied, and the ultras do not find fault.  It is manifest to all, that Mr. Lincoln has taken the bit in his teeth and intends to have his own way, Cabinet or no Cabinet.  The general impression here is, since the utterance of the proclamation, there is no one can approach 

Abraham Lincoln in popularity.  It is regarded as an evidence of unalterable firmness and true grit.

Special to Tribune.

A call is soon to be made upon the States for additional volunteers to the number of at least 100,000; careful inquiry has elicited the fact that our army is smaller than has been represented, even in official accounts numbering not 500,000 effective men.  This fresh force is to be mainly used as a reserve, to be stationed at convenient points to meet emergencies.

Times’ Special.

The subject of lake defences and lake commerce was very forcibly and fully presented this morning, at a meeting of the New York delegation in Congress, by the  Hon. Samuel B. Ruggles, who appeared in behalf of the State.  The principal topics discussed were the present undefended condition of the lakes and the great the and rapid growth of the commerce on these waters; also the vital importance of the cereal products of the States surrounding the lakes, in furnishing the elements of foreign commerce, and consequently in swelling the amount of duties on imports to be received in exchange.

The two cardinal measures growing out of these discussions, and which must occupy the attention of Congress, will be the opening of adequate canals from the eastern and western extremities of the lakes; the first to be effected by enlarging the locks in the Erie and Oswego canals, and the other by the enlargement of the canal from Chicago to Illinois river.  It is hoped that these great measures may be united as integral portions of hone harmonious system, permitting the passage throughout the line of mail-clad vessels sufficient for the defense of these great waters.

The World’s correspondence, under date of Baltimore Cross Roads, Va., 16 miles from Richmond, May 18th says: “I make a prophecy that Richmond is abandoned by the enemy without a fight, and that we occupy it within 48 hours.  If not all signs fail.  This is the advance division towards Richmond.

Cavalry are beyond at Bloton Bridge.  The enemy blew it up yesterday.  Little will it impede our progress, for the stream is narrow, the water but three feet deep and we can ford.

An effort will be made in the House to-morrow to adjourn from the 28th inst. Until the 2d of June, in order to enable members to visit their homes and give time for putting the hall in summer trim.  Those who favor the proposition that such arrangements will not delay business, as the house is far in advance of the Senate in this respect.  The House only contemplates a holiday.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, May 22, 1862, p. 1

Major General William T. Sherman to Thomas Ewing, August 11, 1864

IN THE FIELD, NEAR ATLANTA, Georgia,

August 11, 1864.

I can well understand the keen feelings of apprehension that agitate you, as you sit with mind intent on the fate of a vast machine, like the one I am forced to guide, whose life and success depend on the single thread of rails that for near five hundred miles lies within an hostile or semi-hostile country. I assure you that to the extent of my ability, nothing has been left undone that could be foreseen, and for one hundred days not a man or horse has been without ample food, or a musket or gun without adequate ammunition. I esteem this a triumph greater than any success that has attended me in battle or in strategy, but it has not been the result of blind chance. At this moment I have abundant supplies for twenty days, and I keep a construction party in Chattanooga that can in ten days repair any break that can be made to my rear. I keep a large depot of supplies at Chattanooga and Allatoona, two mountain fastnesses which no cavalry force of the enemy can reach, and in our wagons generally manage to have from ten to twenty days' supplies.

I could not have done this without forethought beginning with the hour I reached Nashville. I found thousands of citizens actually feeding on our stores on the plea of starvation, and other citizens by paying freights were allowed to carry goods, wares and merchandise, to all the towns from Nashville to Chattanooga; also crowds of idlers, sanitary agents, Christian commissions, and all sorts of curiosity hunters loading down our cars. It was the Gordian Knot and I cut it. People may starve, and go without, but an army cannot and do its work. A howl was raised, but the President and Secretary of War backed me, and now all recognize the wisdom and humanity of the thing. Rosecrans had his army starving at Chattanooga, and I have brought an army double its size 138 miles further, and all agree that they were never better fed, clothed and supplied. I think you may rest easy on that score.

My only apprehension arises from the fact that the time of the three year men is expiring all the time, and daily regiments are leaving for home, diminishing my fighting force by its best material; and the draft has been so long deferred, and the foolish law allowing niggers and the refuse of the South to be bought up and substituted on paper (for they never come to the front) will delay my reinforcements until my army on the offensive, so far from its base, will fall below my opponent's, who increases as I lose. I rather think to-day Hood's army is larger than mine, and he is strongly fortified. I have no faith in the people of the North. They ever lose their interest when they should act — they think by finding fault with an officer they clear their skirts of their own sins of misfeasance. . . .

The good news has just come that Farragut's fleet is in Mobile Bay, and has captured the Rebel fleet there; also that Fort Gaines which guards the west entrance to the Bay has surrendered, and some prisoners we took this morning say it was the talk in their camp that the Yankees had the City of Mobile. So all is coming round well, only we should not relax our energies or be deluded by any false hope of a speedy end to this war, which we did not begin, but which we must fight to the end, be it when it may. . . .

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 306-8

The Southern Panic

Every southern newspaper that finds its way North, gives indications of the prevalence of a panic throughout rebeldom.  Just such an alarm as spread over North Carolina after the fall of Hatteras, and over South Carolina after the capture of Port Royal, has been initiated throughout the south by their recent reverses and the general retrograde movement of their troops.  We published, last week, copious extracts from Richmond papers showing the extreme disquietude there.  We turn to other towns to show the universality of the feeling of apprehension and the confusion of counsels among the rebels.  The Charleston Courier of Feb. 28th, says:

We are gratified to learn from high military authority that there is no foundation for the alarming rumors which have been afloat in this city for several days, and that there is no just cause at present for apprehension.

If the feeling of security were real it would hardly be worth while to be at such pains to reassure the people.

The Augusta, Georgia, Daily Constitutionalist, of March 2d, says:

The anxiety arising from the large stock of cotton in our city is carried to extremes.  The fear that the cotton will add to the enemy’s inducements to move on Augusta and attempt its capture is magnifying the danger in the eyes of many of our citizens.  * * *  May we not pronounce all present schemes for removing the cotton from August as unnecessary, impolitic, mischievous?  The enemy have been within one hundred and fifty miles of the city for three months, yet we have remained serene and quiet.  During all this time cotton has been crowding to Augusta as to a place of safety.  To commence now to remove it would savor the unmanly panic, rather than of sound judgment.  And if the people of Augusta thus give way to apprehensions, might not  a sort of stampede insure in every other town in the south in two hundred miles of the enemy’s camp.

Fear is infectious and “betrays like treason.”  Commence to remove the cotton, and soon timid women, and possibly come timid men, would be flying from the city, and in less than a week it would be reported throughout the land that the enemy had captured Augusta.

We would exhort the impulsive to pause the excitable to be cam, the timid to stand firm. – Augusta is a long distance from the enemy’s gunboats.  It is hardly a conceivable thing that the gunboats can get here.

The Macon (Ga.) Telegraph says:

We hardly know which threatens greater peril to the independence of the South – the hordes of Lincoln, who are precipitating themselves upon our border, or the insane spirit of speculation which is possessing some of our people.  A friend from a neighboring city says it is an actual fact that the people are talking less of our perils by war than our perils by sharpers; and if two things continue long at this rate we shall have two of what Lincoln could call civil wars on our hands at one and the same time.

From the great degree of exasperation among the people, he seriously fears that the internal peace of the country will be in danger, unless a greater spirit of moderation prevails among dealers and manufacturers.

* * * * * * *

The occasion of the present excitement is the extraordinary and general rise in sugar and molasses immediately on the receipt of intelligence of our disaster in Tennessee, by which it was supposed the railway communication with the Mississippi and New Orleans were endangered.  Upon this ever dealer held out at once for a rise, and it is said molasses in various markets went up ten to twenty-five cents a gallon, and sugar three to six cents a pound.

The Mobile Register of the 4th says:

It will, of course, be generally known to-day that Gen. Bragg left this city this morning, by the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.  At a time when every circumstance is rolled as a sweet morsel under to tongues of croakers and panic makers, this departure will be sure to be magnified into undue proportions of significance, and some amiable people will be delighted at a fresh opportunity to terrify the women and children and perhaps send a few more of the sex that do wear unmentionables and ought to wear crinoline, flying into the country and creating a panic among the egg and poultry dealers, and thereby help to starve out the town they had not the courage to help defend.

He has gone upon the invitation of General Beauregard to consult upon the plan of campaign for the defence of the Mississippi valley.  He will be within a few hours reach of the city, and steam and electricity can bring him back before the enemy could make his first dispositions for a land or sea attack.  Meantime he has left the city with a complete plan of defense matured, and the defenses in the hands of accomplished officers.  Gen. Jones, now chief of the army at Pensacola, will assume command here, and will be seconded by Col. Villipigue, the Hero of Fort McRae.  The skilled artillerists of this officer’s regiment will be entrusted with the principle batteries.  Fort Morgan is in the brave and energetic hands of Major Powell, and Fort Gaines is commanded by Major Hallonquist, a highly instructed artillery officer.

We assure the women and children that there is no cause of present alarm. * * *

The Duty of our men is plain.  It is to arm, drill and prepare to hold their city to the last extremity; to keep cool themselves, frown down the panic makers, and assure the woman that they are able and willing to defend their homes.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 22, 1862, p. 1

From the Gulf

WASHINGTON, May 21. – Voluminous dispatches are received from the Gulf go-day.  They relate principally to the details of the recent movements connected with the capture of New Orleans.  The vessels of the fleet have been judiciously distributed under Com. Lee, going up as far as Vicksburgh for purposes which it would be improper to state.

It appears from documents that Com. Farragut carried out his instructions to the letter and was cheerfully sustained by all under his command.

On our forces occupying Pensacola, the Mayor promised that the citizens would behave themselves peacefully.  The rebels had evacuated the place on hearing that our steamers the day before were going to run into Mobile bay and that the squadron and mortar boats would soon follow.

Com. Porter left Ship Island on the 7th with a steamer belonging to the mortar fleet and the Sachem for Mobile bar, for the purpose of fixing a place for the mortar vessels to lie and plant buoys for the ships to run in by when they should arrive.  Great excitement seemed to exist within the forts at the progress of the fleet.

There was reason to believe that Fort Gains was evacuated and that the troops there were leaving to reinforce fort Morgan.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 24, 1862, p. 3

Brevet Brigadier-General G. W. Clark

BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL G. W. CLARK.

COLONEL, THIRTY-FOURTH INFANTRY.

George Washington Clark, the original colonel of the 34th Iowa Infantry, is a native of Johnson county, Indiana, and was born on the 26th day of December, 1833. He was educated at Wabash College, Indiana, and resided with his father's family at the place of his nativity till the year 1856, which is all that I know of his early history. In the spring of 1856 he removed to Iowa, and became a resident of Indianola, Warren county, where he has since made his home. He is a lawyer by profession. Subsequently to his removal to Iowa, and prior to the spring of 1861, when he entered the service, he practiced his profession in Warren county. He was, I am told, a successful lawyer, and had, at the time of entering the service, a paying practice.

At the outbreak of the war, General Clark was the first man in Warren county to enroll himself a volunteer. In May, 1861, he assisted in raising Company G, of the 3d Iowa Infantry, which was the first company that went out from Warren county. He was commissioned a first lieutenant, and, on the organization of his regiment, was appointed regimental quarter-master, which position he held till the first of September, 1862, when he was commissioned colonel of the 34th Iowa Infantry. For meritorious services, he was, in the spring of 1865, made a brevet brigadier-general.

Up to the time of the capture of Arkansas Post, the history of the 34th Iowa is not very dissimilar from those of the 25th, 26th, 30th and 31st Iowa Infantry regiments. Late in the fall of 1862, these regiments had all, under orders, arrived at Helena, Arkansas, at which point General Grant was concentrating troops preparatory to making a descent on Vicksburg by way of Chickasaw Bayou. The expedition, which started late in December, under command of General Sherman, was a failure; but through no fault of the troops; for, during the three days' struggle in the brush and swamps that border Chickasaw Bayou, soldiers never fought better. The fact is, General Sherman did not succeed, simply because the obstacles to be overcome at that point were insurmountable. Had General Grant maintained his line of communication, and threatened Vicksburg from the east, the result would doubtless have been different; for he would have drawn a large portion of the rebel army out from the Walnut Hills.

Immediately after the unfortunate operations at Chickasaw Bayou, the Arkansas River Expedition was organized, which terminated in the capture of Arkansas Post. This brilliant affair was accomplished on the 11th of January, 1863, and partially atoned for previous disasters. The capture of these formidable works, in which the 34th Iowa took a prominent part, was a great disaster to the enemy in Southern Arkansas, and disconcerted him in his previously arranged plans of harassing the flank and rear of General Grant in his operations against Vicksburg. The following is from Colonel Clark's official report of the part his regiment took in the capture of this strong-hold:

"We had just returned from the bloody battle-field of Chickasaw Bayou, where we had been repulsed with terrible slaughter. Sherman's entire fleet came out of the Yazoo River on the 3d of January, and on the 9th steamed up the Arkansas River, to operate against Arkansas Post, arriving near there the same day. The following day was occupied in reconnoitering and skirmishing. Our (Steele's) Division marched all that night through the woods and swamps, through which it was impossible to take baggage-wagons or ambulances. At day light the next morning we found ourselves within range of the enemy's guns, from which he immediately opened on us. Our batteries were soon put in position, and commenced a vigorous reply. The artillery continued until about 12 o'clock M. At this time I received an order from General Steele to move my regiment rapidly to the front, which was promptly obeyed. I moved the regiment forward in line of battle, to a point within one hundred and fifty yards of the enemy's intrenchments."

This position was held till the place surrendered, and during this part of the action the gallant Captain Dan H. Lyons fell.

During the three weeks that followed the capture of Arkansas Post, the 34th Iowa saw their hardest service. After the capitulation, Colonel Clark was detailed with his regiment to escort the captured prisoners from that point to Camp Douglas; and, on the way, both the prisoners and their escort suffered untold hardships. Only three miserable transports were allowed the colonel, in which to convey his own command and the prisoners (numbering between five and six thousand) from the point of capture to St. Louis. It was mid-Winter, and on the trip the small-pox broke out. The boats were so densely crowded that they could not be policed, and became shockingly filthy; and in this accumulation of filth this loathsome disease was raging, adding each half-hour one to the list of mortality. The scene was most wretched and revolting. In writing to a friend Colonel Clark said: "During those two weeks, I witnessed more human suffering, than I had seen in all my life before."

On returning from Chicago to St. Louis, Colonel Clark was ordered with his regiment, in the early part of April, to Pilot Knob, to anticipate the reported movement of General Marmaduke on that place. For two months after, he commanded the Post and District of Pilot Knob and then joined the command of General Herron, which was en route for Vicksburg. General Herron arrived at Vicksburg on the 11th of June; and was assigned a position on the extreme left of General Grant's army. The 1st Brigade of his Division, to which the 34th Iowa belonged, was stationed near the Mississippi, which position it held till the surrender of the city.

On the morning of the 11th of July, General Herron's Division was embarked on transports, with orders to report to General Banks, at Port Hudson; but news now arriving of the surrender of that place, these troops sailed up the Yazoo River, constituting the force which captured Yazoo City, and subsequently marched out across the Big Black River, to Canton, to make a diversion in favor of General Sherman before Jackson. These operations closed, Colonel Clark sailed with his regiment down the Mississippi River; since which time he has served in the Gulf Department and the trans-Mississippi.

During the latter part of the fall of 1863, and through the following Winter, the history of the 34th Iowa savors somewhat of romance. Stationed at Fort Esperanga on Matagorda Island, which lies at the head of the Gulf of Mexico, and at the mouth of the Guadeloupe River, the men, when off duty, passed their time in wandering on the beach, and gathering curious shells. They even talked of associating Ceres and Flora, as consorts with their patron war-god, Mars. But these scenes closed on the opening of the Spring Campaign under Major-General Banks.

The troops, who joined in the Red River Campaign, have never had full credit for their heroic endurance of the perils and hardships they encountered, which may be attributable to the fact that, the campaign was only fruitful of disaster.

In the battles that were fought near Alexandria, the 34th Iowa took an active part, and sustained itself with credit; but the sufferings of the regiment in these battles and in the early part of the campaign, were not to be compared with those experienced on the memorable nine days' retreat to Simmsport and Morganzia. During these nine days and nights, there were no halts for rest and sleep, or only such as were required for repairing the roads, and constructing pontoons.

On the 28th of May, 1864, the 34th Iowa left Morganzia for Baton Rouge, where it remained till the latter part of July, when it sailed with the command of General Granger against the rebel forts at the mouth of Mobile Bay. The operations of Rear-Admiral Farragut and General Granger against Forts Powell, Gaines and Morgan were brief and brilliant; and the troops who joined in these operations may well feel proud of their achievements. On the 2d of August, 1864, General Granger effected a landing on Dauphin Island, and within twenty-one days from that time, each one of these forts was in the possession of our forces. The 34th Iowa was the first regiment to disembark on the west point of Dauphin Island. It was soon joined by the 96th Ohio, and a colored regiment; when the entire force, under command of Colonel Clark, with skirmishers well advanced and extending from shore to shore, marched forward in the direction of Fort Gaines. The night was dark and stormy, and an east wind beat a drenching rain directly in the faces of the troops. To any but soldiers, the occasion would have been dismal; but these brave fellows, trudging on through the mud and rain, were jocose and merry. Colonel Clark advanced about six miles, and to within two miles of the fort, when he halted and rested his command in line of battle. At day-light he was joined by the 67th Indiana, the 77th Illinois and the 3d Maryland; when, after slight demonstrations, the fort surrendered.

In the reduction of Fort Morgan Colonel Clark with his command also took a conspicuous part; and on its capitulation, on the morning of the 23d of August, led the escort, composed of his own regiment and the 20th Wisconsin, which was marched out to receive the garrison as prisoners of war. Subsequently to February, 1864, he has commanded a brigade. With this command, he distinguished himself at the battle of Middle Bayou, and was highly complimented for his coolness and bravery.

The Fall and Winter following the operations at the mouth of Mobile Bay were passed by the 34th Iowa on the Gulf coast and along the Mississippi. In January, 1865, the regiment was consolidated with the 38th Iowa Infantry, and under the new organization retained its old name and colonel.

For many months, the 34th Iowa was stationed at Barrancas, Florida: from that point, it marched with General Steele against Mobile, and took part in the assault and capture of Fort Blakely.

General Clark is a little above six feet in hight, and has a fine, well-developed form. He is a fine looking man, though, when I saw him, he was a little too fleshy; but at that time he was just from his home, and on the way to re-join his regiment.

General Clark is a man of gentlemanly deportment, and, I am told, has good ability, and much shrewdness. He has a good military record. One who has visited all the Iowa troops in the Gulf Department, speaks thus of him: "Colonel Clark stands high, and, with the officers in general, seeks not only the highest military efficiency, but also a good moral character for his regiment." The general took great pride in the drill and discipline of his old regiment. His regiment were proud of their name, and designated themselves the "star regiment."

In politics, General Clark is a Republican; though, I am told, he was never a political aspirant.

SOURCE: Addison A. Stuart, Iowa Colonels and Regiments, p. 501-6